Sorry Taylor

YESTERDAY I voted for Elliot Yamin after the American Idol show. I dialed. It rang. Then a voice said, "Thank you for voting for contestant number 2!" And then it was over. Ay, anti-climactic.

I really, really, really like Taylor Hicks. Kaya lang Elliot's performance was just superb last night. It was PERFECT!

Weather & Food

DAYS have been mostly at 13 Degrees Celsius, more or less. Very good. On overcast days, it drops down to 9 and that amazes me. I take the sun for granted in Manila. I run away from it most of the time. Pero dito, I hope it is always out all day. Clouds are nice. They are pretty. But I don't want them blocking my source of warmth.

Still, I am not quite as loco as the young locals who sun bathe even in the unsafe hours from noon to 3 p.m.

***



I have so much more respect for waiters and waitresses. Last Saturday, I volunteered to help out with Churches United in Ministry (CHUM) benefit dinner for homeless people. Hannah explianed that every year, they always have international students help out with the benefit. So I said yes, not knowing what to expect.

Yikes. There was so much work. And it all had to be done really fast. All six of us laid out appetizer plates, kept the punch bowl filled, bussed the appetizer plates, poured water, collected the dinner plates, served dessert. My estimation is that we served 100 to 125 people that evening. Now I will always tip big.

But I did have fun, though it was a lot of work. I got to meet the Islamic women of Duluth. Of course, there wasn't much time to talk. But before the guests came, they fed us volunteers at the kitchen and ended up sharing the meal with us too (That's the photo up there). Wow, WONDERFUL VEGETABLE POTATO SOMOSAS! HEAVENLY LENTIL! YUMMY MEAT DISH THAT I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS CALLED! And those were just the appetizers! (We got to eat some dinner later after the guests were served.) And those DELICIOUS NAN BREAD DIPS! OH-MY-GOD! I need to remind myself to ask Hannah for her mom's Somosa recipe.

Weehee!

MY Monday colloquium has been postponed! Woohoo! One deadline less. I can now think about New York and today, I only have two tasks to do. And most of that is have a party downstairs in my darkroom. :) :) :)

Doing it in the Dark

WELL, my basement darkroom is all set. I don't really need it to be 100% light-tight because I only need it for printing. I am okay with using my changing bag to load film into my developing tank.

I made my first basement darkroom photograms today adn experimented with solarization. Too bad I can't load my plates. I don't have a scanner. alk about technology gaps. But they are not anything spectacular anyway. They experiment plates.

Now I don't have to be dependent on the UMD darkroom where the tongs are contaminated and you have to put up with the ocassional whiny girl, the boyfriends who hang out waiting for their girlfriends to finish their darkroom work, or just plain weird people.

Here are a few items I still need:
1. chemical-resistant gloves
2. plastic apron
3. trash can
4. trash bags
5. polycontrast filters
6. a radio
7. safety eyewear

After 11 Years

HERE I go again. It is done. I am finished with it. I have sent it off. I have daydreamed about good things for it. I have worried about it not being good enough. But I am on a roll. It is out of my hands, for now. And so we buckle down and wait. Ah, it feels so good to be back!

Holy Week Thoughts

E-MAILS from Manila are full of Holy Week details. People are stocking up on CDs, DVDs or videos to watch at home. Some have plans to hit the beach. All are anticipating the great exodus of people from Manila and the monstrous traffic on the way to the provinces. Flights will be fully booked. The Inquirer will have two days of real rest: no newspaper production on Thursday and Friday and no newspaper on Friday and Saturday. It will be hot, sweaty. In Manila, heat will radiate from the pavement. In some streets, asphalt will melt. Rubber-soled shoes will be damaged. There will be old women reading and singing the Passion of Christ on makeshift sound systems in churches, in chapels, in schools, in garages, in hastily constructed sheds. The men who usually hang out at the sari-sari store drinking beer will be on the streets, on their knees, carrything crosses. Their faces will be covered with white, grimy, sweaty shirts. Other men will stand there, half-naked, flagellating themselves. Getting their backs all bloodied up. A handful will want to be nailed to a cross tomorrow and re-open their forced stigmata wounds. Children will shriek and run away when they see these men. They will hide but they will come back to look and oogle, until they run away shrieking again. In some churches, larger than life mannequins of Jesus, Mary, Roman soldiers and other characters of the Holy Week story will be dusted off, dressed and polished. Easter Sunday will be their day. There will be sidewalk drinks and food. Not your cleanest cuisine. A good source of hepatitis if I might say. But people will still have them, as I had them, over and over until I got sick. O h well. That' what you get for getting a drink near the dirty Abacan river.

Ah, Holy Week in the Philippines. I'll have to admit, I really do miss it.

Film, soon to vanish

EVELEN degrees Celsius. Tropical! Want to spend a huge chunk of time outdoors today, but I have deadlines. Dang. Nevertheless, I SHOULD go out for a walk around noontime and get some sunshine. And maybe go for a walk at Bagely around six. Half of the day in front of the lap top and half in the darkroom. Done with rolls one and two for assignment four. Realized I need roll three developed and dried before I even start on some prints. It's going to be a tricky experiment of merging images using an enlarger instead of Photoshop.

***

My suking tindahan First Photo raised the price of a 100 sheet box of Ilford RC Pearl photo paper from $45 to $65. Aba! Nawili! At the UMD arts supplies store items usually are overpriced too, that same box of photo paper is priced at $50. I bought a box tuloy.

This makes me wonder when they'll start overpricing Ilford film. I think black and white film and the darkroom process is here to stay though. It'll just get more expensive. It's colored film I'm wondering about. When will they stop making them? When will they become specialty items? At the UMD bookstore, you can have your rolls of colored film developed and prints made for dirt cheap prices. And when you get your pictures, may kasama pang two rolls of free film. Looks like they're getting rid of the inventory.

Happy News

YIPEE! I just learned that I got the UMD Photo Alliance Scholarship! I don't know yet how much the scholarship is for, but I'm hoping I can use it to take a class this summer. Otherwise, I guess I can wait till fall. This is exciting! My photos will be displayed at the School of Fine Arts for a month (I think). This is the third time any of my photography as been exhibited. The first one was in Angeles when I was in 3rd year high school (won 2nd Place in a local competition). The second one was in 2004 at the Filipinas Heritage Library (won 2nd place there too). And now this. Really excited. My ears are still warm!

No Manila for Me

WELL, I guess it's final. I'm not going home to Manila this summer. The dates are just too crazy, the time too short and the money too precious. I guess it'll have to be another year or two before I go home.

Instead, I bought myself a ticket to New York with my airmiles. Not going to Manila to see my friends would have to be replaced by an equally exciting trip. So I am finally going to see my most favorite painting of all, Van Gogh's "Starry Night" at the New York MoMA. I'm also going to make the pilgrimmage (finally!) to the New York Library. I'm going to revisit China Town in New York, see the Cloisters, see the Guggenheim and watch "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee". Meet up with Lorina and Dong and crash at Lara's place. And hey, there's an Edward Munch exhibit at the MoMA too. "This is the first retrospective devoted to the work of the internationally renowned Norwegian painter, printmaker, and draftsman to be held in an American museum in almost three decades," the brochure says. "The Scream" is out there somewhere, living the exciting life of a stolen painting. An unhurried one week adventure in the city that never sleeps is the best alternative to a cancelled trip home.

Waiting for Lulu

SEVEN in the evening and it's still light out. The sun rises at around 6 a.m. Days are getting longer. The air is warmer. My skin is no longer lizzardly dry. We wait for Lulu the cat to come out of her house and play, and lounge around on her front yard. I hope she's okay. I hope she had a good winter. We don't really know how old she is.

Today I found out that Diane Arbus died by suicide, and why am I not surprised.

There is a big pot of gumbo in the fridge and I don't really want any of it. Seeing all that meat and fat has given me the urge to go back to my no-red-meat diet. If only chicken weren't so boring. If only tofu weren't so crumbly. If only Mother Sachi had a carinderia nearby.

A few days ago, I went for a walk on the beach and a trudge through the woods with my classmates. Lake Superior is so large it sounds like the sea. There were actually large waves. After the beack walk, we trudged through a birchwood area and picked up birchbark for Adriane's basket project. Joy and I peed in the woods. A highly satisfying experience.

A rabbit has taken over our backyard. The squirrels are restless.